Mystery Fiction

In a mystery, your lead character wants to get to the bottom of some unexplained happening or puzzle. The reader is challenged to use the clues provided to solve the puzzle before the hero. Mystery fiction relies heavily on the plot, clues and plot twists and requires a lot of research and reason. In fact mystery fiction remains the most logical of all genres. It does not tolerate unexplained incidences. 

The plot in a mystery novel requires the presence of a crime that happens within the first chapters of the novel. More often than not, the crime will involve a murder.  Smatterings of kidnapping, theft, missing people, arson, assault, blackmail, extortion, vandalism, sexual assault or stalking may feature in the plot. What is critical is that the crime be sufficiently gruesome, unusual and interesting. The victim will probably be someone who is not well liked or not well known. Create an outline of how the crime occurred and the timelines for when everything happened.

Even before you begin writing you must know the ending of your mystery novel. Who is the criminal? It cannot be an accident or a suicide. The criminal himself should be intelligent enough to cover their tracks. He/she can be either immoral (knows it is wrong but does it anyway) or amoral (rules are made for others). Usually they are extremely egotistical.

The criminal is camouflaged by suspects. The prime suspects must have means, opportunity and motive. They want to stay out of jail so they’ll lie to excuse themselves or to implicate other suspects. You can kill one of the suspects to increase the urgency of the plot.  Eventually the suspects will be exonerated by an alibi.

Like the criminal, the detective cannot be foolish. He can be absent-minded, naïve or quirky but never stupid. When creating your detective, there are certain character traits he/she must have i.e. curiosity, personal abilities and resources to be able to solve the crime and a sense of morality.  Take care that the kind of detective you present is appropriate to the time and if not show the difficulties they go as they try to adapt. His/her instruments are the clues.

Clues can be anything from physical (piece of cloth, an open book,) to verbal (dialogue with characters and eye witness accounts) an action, gesture.  All clues necessary to solving the crime must be shown even if they will be released sneakily throughout the story. Try to make your clues as understandable to the layman as possible.

Usually it is best to have your list of clues (about 3 – 10) before you set out to write to avoid mix-ups. The clues will include real clues and red herrings to divert the reader’s attention by either implicating wrong suspects or leading to dead ends. Most of the clues should have the ability to be misunderstood or misread and point to more than one suspect. However, you must have one main real clue that leads only and directly to the criminal. Also think of varying how all your clues will be revealed and by who. An example of a chart to plot out clues;

	Lou	Sanders	Deidre	Keisha
Has access to the car boot	ü	ü
Did not frighten the victim	ü	ü		ü
Knew the guard’s patrol schedule		ü		ü
Heard Maggy come into the apartment complex		ü	ü	ü
Strong enough to lift her into the boot in minutes
Key Clue: Had access to the Parking lot		ü

The crime scene can assist or impede the investigation. Mystery writers will often use normal settings understanding that the genre in itself can make even the most boring of places pulse with excitement. However is you do choose to use known places remember to rename known landmarks.

As you plot your mystery don’t forget to include a climax where they’ll be tension or drama and a resolution where the crime will be solved.